WHS Principal Charles Jendrysik, WTA Principal Dan Paquette and WHS Assistant Principal Andrew Joseph present a new cell phone policy to the Westfield School Committee.
Photo credit: Westfield Community TV
WESTFIELD — The School Committee officially approved an electronic policy for both high schools, with amendments, on Aug. 24, just before approving the handbooks for the 2026–27 school year.
Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski, Westfield High School Principal Charles Jendrysik, and Westfield Technical Academy Principal Dan Paquette presented the new policy during the meeting.
Before introducing the WHS and WTA principals, Czaporowski said the policy was time-sensitive, as legislation banning cellphones in schools had passed the Senate and was pending.
“Right now it is in committee, but the House is expected to pass it next month, and Governor [Maura] Healey has indicated that she will sign cellphone bans. And the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has required districts to submit our plans to them by Sept.1 as well,” Czaporowski said before introducing Jendrysik and Paquette. He said WHS piloted the Doorman app at the school last year.
“It was important for us to have a consistent procedure between both high schools. So Dan [Paquette] and his team worked with me and Andrew [Joseph, assistant principal at WHS] to get things set up and on the same page for this year,” said Jendrysik.
“As you are all aware, we did launch the Doorman app halfway through last year, and launching any initiative halfway through a school year sets you up with a series of challenges, but I feel that it also gave us a really good perspective to see this app, to see the potential that it has,” he said.
Jendrysik said that through the pilot they learned a lot about how to make it work for everybody. “We wanted to let you know that we were working together,” he said, referring to both high schools.
Jendrysik said the new policy was established based on the pilot experience. “We also set up a parents’ night so that parents could come and learn more about the app. One of the things that was really impressive to us was the attentiveness of the company we’re working with. They’ve been really good any time we’ve had an issue or a question,” he said.
A parents’ night was also planned for Westfield Technical Academy on Aug. 25 to answer parents’ questions about how the app works, and Jendrysik said representatives of Doorman would be there.
“Procedurally, what we’re talking about is an app that students will download on their phone free of cost,” said Paquette. Inside classrooms are devices that, when in contact with students’ phones, activate the Doorman app. “In addition, it provides teachers access to attendance that is linked to PowerSchool. Other than that, we’re also giving students the option of not bringing their cellphones to school.”
Paquette said he’s had students ask him if they could leave their phones in their cars. “Absolutely, that sounds like a fine solution, as long as the phone is not coming into school and is not being used during academic time,” he said.
“We felt that this was a good middle ground,” said Jendrysik. “I’ve gone to other schools who use the bags and things like that, and we all know that students find ways around it; they put phones in there that are not their own phones and find loopholes. We’re not saying that this doesn’t have any loopholes, but we thought it was important to teach students to be able to have their phone in hand where they can be reached with texts or when emergencies happen. That is one of the reasons we went with the Doorman app.”
School Committee member Jeffrey Gunther asked questions about the logistics of using the Doorman app in class. He said it was smart to have an option where students don’t have to bring their phones to school.
“This is for parents who want their students to have the phone with them all the time. This is an option available. I’m curious logistically how you’re anticipating enforcing that, because while the PowerSchool integration is great, some students won’t have the phone with them. So if I’m a teacher and a phone is out, what am I supposed to do to ensure whether the student has logged in? Do I have to stop to find out if the student’s logged into the app?” asked Gunther.
Joseph said teachers have a dashboard that clearly indicates whether a student is participating in the Doorman app.
Joseph also clarified that the new handbook policy says electronic devices can’t be out in class at all. “So even if a kid is using Doorman and their phone is out for a reason that they shouldn’t be using it in class, that is a violation of the new policy. So no one should have a cellphone out,” he said.
“The idea is that Doorman gives kids a fighting chance to battle against some of the distractions that they have by knocking down the level of technology that they have at their fingertips in that moment, and allowing them to keep the devices on them personally,” Joseph added. He said the phones also have an emergency unlock feature to make them fully accessible.
School Committee member Bo Sullivan asked what percentage of students at Westfield High School signed up for the Doorman app after the School Committee approved it.
Jendrysik said that of the 1,000 students at WHS, 200 opted out, so 80% signed up.
“Of those 80%, what issues did you have? Were there kids putting phones on their desks; were there loopholes involved with this? Did you find anything where they were going around the app after they opted in?” Sullivan asked.
Joseph said the issues they saw were caused by how the school set it up last year, which allowed everything to be accessed between classes. He said that refreshed the apps’ reservoir, so that they could be accessed during class.
“That’s been closed. The routine will now be in place throughout the entirety of the school day, so that won’t be working,” he said.
“Including lunch,” Joseph said, responding to a question from School Committee member Kathleen Hillman.
Sullivan asked if students could still get in touch with their parents.
Joseph said, even with the routine in place, text messages and calls still work.
Sullivan said there are always different reasons people need their phones, including medical reasons. Shop class students also occasionally use their phones at Westfield Technical.
Joseph said one example is students with type I diabetes who use Dexcom to check their blood sugar. “There is a process in place to request a whitelisted app. We already have these from last year,” he said. These include common apps parents use to track their kids, which still work while Doorman is in effect. He said the upcoming House version of the cellphone bill mandates how IEP and 504 exceptions will be handled.
Sullivan also asked whether there had been many complaints during the WHS pilot.
“Nothing major,” Joseph said. He said anytime the school had a conversation with parents who had issues, he found they just needed to be heard, and together they were able to get to the bottom of what was going on. He said one of the founders would come to the informational meeting at WTA. A founder also came to the WHS meeting and answered people’s questions satisfactorily.
Before approving the high school handbooks, Gunther offered language amendments to the policy to clarify that students have the option to either keep those devices off their person or keep them on their person with the Doorman app engaged.
The electronic policy was approved as amended.
After the meeting, Czaporowski and IT Coordinator Brian Dutko addressed some misconceptions about the Doorman app that have spread on social media and been repeated during public participation at meetings, including an incorrect name of the Doorman parent company.
Dutko said Doorman collects the least amount of information possible from students to allow them to download the app. He said Westfield Public Schools has an agreement with the Student Data Privacy Consortium, which has vetted the program and allows use of PowerSchool.
“All the data is encrypted and secure. They can’t read anything on a student’s phone,” he said, adding that once the student leaves the Doorman app, the browsing history is erased.
“For us, the biggest issue is for parents to be able to reach their children while in school; an option that very few districts are offering their families,” said Czaporowski.
Dutko said the district is aiming to teach responsible cellphone use as technology advances and to limit distractions. He said certain apps that can be used for educational purposes in a classroom can be whitelisted and allowed under the Doorman app, as can medical exceptions.
Czaporowski said the compelling argument for educational uses comes from WTA. He said the proposed statewide cellphone ban hasn’t passed into law yet, and part of the pending House legislation includes exceptions for districts using Doorman and Doorman-like apps.
Dutko said other districts in the state using Doorman include Watertown High School, where it was first piloted, and Fitchburg and Wilmington, which are using it this year.
“This is new ground for us, but we will work together to get there,” said Czaporowski.
